From Underneath the Rubble, Sing a Rebel Song
by iPods-and-Tea
Summary: It's an unsettling time in the Fire Nation, post the Hundred-Year War. Not everyone is quite content with their new ruler, and want him out. They miss the reign of Ex-Fire Lord Ozai, and will do anything to restore Fire Nation triumph and dominance to the world. These are the Ozai Loyalist Society members. And, they mean full-scale revolution- they mean business. (M for violence)
1. Don't Wanna See Another Generation Drop

Why do people always feel the need to be in such a hurry? Life is short. We don't have much time. And, while this can leave people feeling anxious, trying to cram everything in at once, we all know how that usually winds up. So, people should at least give a moment or two for a breather. Smell the flowers. Take a leisurely stroll. Breathe the fresh air.

"Zuko! I told you to dress the kids an hour ago!" Mai cried down the hall as she tied her hair up in its trademark style.

"One minute!" Her husband shouted back, he was finishing up signing last-minute documentations for political exchanges. Mai bit her lip, tapping her fingers against her hip in impatient irritation as her infant daughter began to cry in her cradle. She then threw down her hair ties and clips in agitation onto her vanity, storming into her husband's office. She then knocked the stack of papers off of his desk, folding her arms crossly as Zuko jolted up in alarm.

"Mai! What the hell was that?" Zuko shouted, furrowing his eyebrows.

"Kaito needs to be dressed, Ursa is crying, we promised them we'd be there an hour ago and we haven't even left, we are late!" Mai retorted sternly as Zuko sighed, taking deep breaths to contain his anger. He didn't want to blow up in another fight like they'd been having frequently lately. He was picking up the papers she'd scattered all over; he would have to start from scratch on them, he had been working on them for days and was nearly through.

"Mai, I was almost done," Zuko said jadedly.

"You say that every time, I'm sick of it!" Mai screamed as her husband lost his temper, slamming his fist against the hollow, mahogany desk, picking himself up.

"I was! I just wanted to finish! I can't enjoy myself when I know there are a thousand responsibilities weighing over me at home!" Zuko shouted back at her, "My best friends are getting married, I'd like to just focus on that, I would've, had not you come in and ruined it! I'll be up for three days straight making up for all this lost time you just caused!"

"That's another thing, you're never in bed, you're hiding away in this dingy, creepy room all the time," Mai huffed, leaning on the desk, glaring at him.

"Mai, how many times must we run through this? I am in charge of an entire country! The world depends on me! I am the fire lord! I can't ignore these things! I told you this when I proposed, I told you what it was going to be like!" Zuko screamed, pulling at his hair. He was at his wit's end, it was the same argument, day-after-day.

"I know, but it's excessive, you take it too far, Zuko," Mai told him, "Kaito hardly knows you, you might as well be your father for all the attention you give him."

Zuko's eyes bolted open wide, the comment cutting deep, "That's not true!" Zuko snapped, hurt, "My father didn't ignore me, not that I _ignore_ Kaito! He's my son! My father- ha! I _wish_ he ignored me!" Zuko yelled, pointing to the mark on his face.

"The premise is the same, you aren't there for him. I don't even know if Ursa knows who you are," Mai stated coolly.

"That's absurd. I'm the one who always gets up and feeds her when she cries in the middle of the night, I'm the one who changes her diapers most of the time, I take plenty good care of her!" Zuko cried, her words continuing to sting.

"That's not enough. What are you going to do when they're older? You've got another on the way. You'll never have time; it will be more excuses. You won't be there, you will just be some distant man they call father, but don't know the meaning of, and I know what that's like," Mai snarled, placing her hand over her stomach; she was five-months along in her pregnancy.

"Stop it! I will be there, I will!" Zuko cried, "I want to do more, I do, I try! I can't do everything! I can't!" He explained, "Things are chaotic right now, Mai. I hate arguing with you, I hate it! Especially in your condition, and I don't want to make you nervous, but let's just put it this way, there is a lot going on right now, and we could all be in a hell of a lot of danger, okay?"

"Another excuse, wow, Zuko," Mai mocked with her deadpanned demeanor, "Original."

"You messed it all up now anyway, let's get going," Zuko urged, starting to walk away, wanting to just end the shouting match that never lead anywhere.

"Excuse me?" She scoffed, extending her arm to stop him.

"What?" Asked Zuko, massaging his forehead with the tips of his fingers.

"I didn't mess anything up!" Mai declated.

"I-I didn't mean-" Zuko began.

"What did you mean?"

"Just the papers, Mai. You knocked them over. That's all. It'll be a pain to-"

"I think you meant more than that. Well, let me tell you something, _Fire Lord_," Mai spat, giving him an angry shove forward, "The only one messing things up is you! You messed everything up! My father always wanted me to marry you, to get into the royal family, well, before you turned around on your father. Now he hates you. Ugh! This is irrelevant, my point is, and you aren't a good husband. You're never here for me, you aren't a good father, and you are never here for your children! All you care about is this damn country! You don't give a shit about anything else!" Mai screamed. Zuko clenched his fists, feeling his heart break with every word she cut him with.

"You don't know what you're talking about…" Zuko whispered.

"I don't?" Mai asked rhetorically.

"I love you, and I love our children- more than _anything_," Zuko muttered, looking his wife dead in the eye as his watered. He glared at her, too hurt to lash out once more, so he stepped out of the room. This time Mai just watched as he left, hugging her arm, she felt guilty. She swallowed hard down the lump forming in her throat, as she shook her head, leaving the room. Zuko went into the master bedroom where their daughter's crib was, picked up his daughter, kissing her head lightly as he rocked her in his arm.

"I _do_ love you," Zuko whispered to the little, pink bundle as she pulled at his hair, and Zuko gave her a teary smile. Mai watched from outside the door, diverting her gaze sympathetically.

"Come on, Zuko," Mai urged more gently, her rage dwindling, the expecting woman held her three-year-old son's hand as the family made their way for departure to Ba Sing Se through the humid, summer morning.


	2. Maybe I'm in the Black

The sky was brisk, and the wind whisked through their hair as they made their ways to Ba Sing Se upon the royal palace liner ship. They'd left in the morning at daybreak, and it was now late in the night, they wouldn't arrive at their destination until the next morning. Their children were sound asleep in their beds, and the pregnant fire lady and her husband were leaning against the edge of their ship, gazing at the stars and trying to enjoy the night, but ignoring contact with each other after their earlier squabble. Mai looked up at the bright, glowing, full moon and sighed, then stared downward at the water, lowering her head. Zuko quickly glanced over to her and went to her side, wary of his affections, knowing she was still probably angered with him. He put a simple hand on her back.

"Mai?" Asked Zuko in concern, always overprotective and doting of her more excessively while she was pregnant.

"I'm fine," She dismissed, "It's nothing, I'm not helpless, quit acting like it."

"Sorry," He mumbled, quickly retracting his hand, and averting his gaze, shifting his weight in the opposite direction. Mai caught his sullen movements and sighed once more.

"Zuko," She began, "Zuko, I was too harsh today, I'm sorry."

"You were right though," Zuko muttered, and Mai's eyes widened. Did he really believe that? Her mind snapped to correct him, to tell him none of the things she said were even close to true. She wanted to run into his arms and hold him tight because he looked so broken, but she was stubborn, and she was still mad, and half of the things she said, she believed. Some of them she knew were too harsh of putting it, she wanted to make an impact so he'd improve, one or two things, she knew were blatant lies she threw in just to hurt. The one about him being like his own father was too out of line. But she wouldn't say it, even though she wanted to. She just snapped again, like they had been fighting the last seven or eight months.

"Shut up," She grunted out finally, and Zuko just sighed.

"What the hell do you want from me, Mai?" Zuko yelled, his voice was desperate and jaded.

"I thought I made it apparent this morning," She snapped curtly.

"I just wanted to finish, Mai," He reasoned, "That's all I wanted to do! I wasn't lying, there were two more documents! Two!"

"How am I supposed to know? You lie to me all the damn time," Mai shouted and Zuko slammed his fist onto the edge of the ship that he was leaning on.

"When have I _ever_ lied to you?!" Zuko demanded angrily, staring at her with angered, flaming gold eyes, "I have been nothing but honest to you our entire marriage, Mai."

"You tell me you're coming to bed, or teaching Kaito firebending!" Mai yelled her examples as her husband rolled his eyes.

"Those are hardly lies," He snarled, glaring at his wife, referencing what she could easily infer as she bit her lip.

"You told me you weren't going to bring that up anymore, Zuko. You told me you forgave me. You told me it was in the past, that we were moving forward," Mai whispered, refusing to look at him.

"I know, I meant it, all of those things," Zuko answered, putting a hand on her shoulder, but she jerked it off, "You accused me of lying! You accuse me of all these things, that just never happened! Nothing close!" Zuko screamed.

"Like what?" Mai cried out.

"About two months ago, you yelled at me for weeks, claiming I had concubines!" Zuko cried, "When you know, you know I would never do something like that! Why would I? Do you know me at all, Mai? Mai, you are the only woman I've been with- wanted to be with, my whole life! When I assumed the throne, I got rid of all of my fathers harlots, Mai! You don't trust me!"

"Why should I?" She screamed back, "Why?"

"I've never given you a reason not to," Zuko shouted, "Unlike you."

"It's over, Zuko. I haven't seen him in years," Mai muttered, pressing her fingers to her nose.

"Sure, it's over. It didn't hurt. It didn't hurt me to know, once again, that I wasn't enough, that you needed someone else, I wasn't good enough," Said Zuko quietly, recalling the adultery against him sorrowfully.

"Maybe then, maybe you should start _acting_ good enough. Maybe if you were here for me more, maybe then it wouldn't have happened! I wouldn't have went to _Shinn_! I wouldn't have felt like I had to!" Mai shouted back, echoing the words Zuko used himself when he blamed himself for his wife's infidelity. Zuko just turned away, having no counter, the words feeling like salt in a ripped open old wound.

"…Do you still see him?" Zuko asked below a whisper.

"No," Mai snarled, "See, you don't trust me either."

"I do, Mai. I believed you when you said it'd never happen again," Zuko stated, "I gave you a second chance because I love you."

"Like I've never given you second chances?" Mai screamed.

"No, I know, I know, I screw up a lot, you've given me hundreds, I know-" Zuko cried, wracking his hands through his charcoal-black hair, that held streaks of stressed-out silver, in tired frustration. There were rebels on the rise in the Fire Nation, a powerful, activist regime known as The Loyalists. He knew they were planning a full-scale rebellion, and he was more stressed out than usual, but didn't say a peep in fear of causing worry to his pregnant wife. But her constant shouting escalated his stress, and he was at his wit's end, losing it.

"My father said you were a handful," Mai grumbled, turning her back to lean in the opposite direction to the edge of the boat.

"Your father is a Loyalist," Zuko remarked.

"I know," She spat, "What's your point? He's my dad. He always tried to pair us up. Said being with the prince would ensure me a spot as fire lady."

"What?" Zuko muttered, his heart frozen over, "What do you mean? Was this all just…? Does… you don't… You only ever… Because I was in royalty?"

"No, Zuko," Mai lowered her voice, "That isn't what I meant."

"Do you… do you _love me_, Mai?" Zuko said bluntly, honestly questioning it, for the first time in his life these last few months.

"_Zuko_…" Mai muttered, closing her eyes tightly in hurt from his question. Zuko shook his head in confusion, swallowing down the lump in his throat.

"Mai? …_Please_." Zuko begged, subconsciously pleading for her to love him. Mai just brought her face into her hands, nodding it.

"You know the answer," Was all she said, and Zuko just backed away, squeezing his shoulder as he walked by her, heading off to bed.

"Actually, I'm not so sure I do anymore."


End file.
